History YMMV / Ico

* CompleteMonster: The Queen. She has been emotionally abusing ''her own [[TheWoobie daughter]]'' for her entire life, imprisoning her in a small cage hanging from a ceiling. (which was actually considered a form of '''''torture''''' in the medieaval ages). Not to mention manipulating [[TheWoobie Yorda]] into thinking that she'll die if she ever leaves the castle, effectively breaking her spirit. (it's implied that this is the reason [[TheWoobie Yorda]] is so passive during the game, it's not because she's weak, it's because she's [[BreakTheCutie broken]]. Then theirs the fact that she's been manipulating an entire village into sacrificing there children. (said sacrifice involves ''[[AndIMustScream sealing those children inside of]]'' '''''[[AndIMustScream coffins]]''''' ''[[AndIMustScream until they die]])''. And it's implies that she controls their spirits as her servants.

* AndTheFandomRejoiced: The recent announcement of ''ICO and Shadow of the Colossus: The Collection.'' Which not only brings both ICO and ShadowOfTheColossus to the {{PS3}}, with HD graphics, 3D Enable, and fixed framerates, but also, finally, will allow American audiences to enjoy the complete (PAL and Japanese) version of Ico. Took you long enough, Sony.
** It looks like the until now Japanese exclusive novelization may be getting an English release.
*** Confirmed. It's due out on August 16th, 2011.

* GoddamnBats - All the shadows are this, basically. They won't do any significant damage (except if they push you down a ledge…) but will get in your way, and you spend much time waving your stick in the air while trying to hit them.

*** To be fair, if you could open the front door with a button it wouldn't be a jail, wouldn't it. I mean, you're not ''supposed'' to get out of there.

** And it's revealed that her motivation for doing that was to [[spoiler: extend her own lifespan by ''killing her daughter and [[GrandTheftMe possesing her body]]]].

* CompleteMonster: The Queen. She has been emotionally abusing her own [[TheWoobie daughter]] for her entire life, imprisoning her in a small cage hanging from a ceiling. (which was actually considered a form of '''''torture''''' in the medieaval ages). Not to mention manipulating [[TheWoobie Yorda]] into thinking that she'll die if she ever leaves the castle, effectively breaking her spirit. (it's implied that this is the reason [[TheWoobie Yorda]] is so passive during the game, it's not because she's weak, it's because she's [[BreakTheCutie broken]]. Then theirs the fact that she's been manipulating an entire village into sacrificing there children. (said sacrifice involves ''[[AndIMustScream sealing those children inside of]]'' '''''[[AndIMustScream coffins]]''''' ''[[AndIMustScream until they die]])''. And it's implies that she controls their spirits as her servants.

* CompleteMonster: The Queen. She has been emotionally abusing her own [[TheWoobie daughter]] for her entire life, imprisoning her in a small cage hanging from a ceiling. (which was actually considered a form of '''''torture''''' in the medieaval ages). Not to mention manipulating [[TheWoobie Yorda]] into thinking that she'll die if she ever leaves the castle, effectively breaking her spirit. (it's implied that this is the reason [[TheWoobie Yorda]] is so passive during the game, it's not because she's weak, it's because she's [[BreakTheCutie broken]]. Then theirs the fact that she's been manipulating an entire village into sacrificing there children. (said sacrifice involves ''[[AndIMustScream sealing those children inside of]]'' '''''[[AndIMustScream coffins]]''''' ''[[AndIMustScream until they die]]''. And it's implies that she controls their spirits as her servants.

* CompleteMonster: The Queen. She has been emotionally abusing her own [[TheWoobie daughter]] for her entire life, imprisoning her in a small cage hanging from a ceiling. (which was actually considered a form of '''''torture''''' in the medieaval ages). Not to mention manipulating [[TheWoobie Yorda]] into thinking that she'll die if she ever leaves the castle, effectively breaking her spirit. (it's implied that this is the reason [[TheWoobie Yorda]] is so passive during the game, it's not because she's weak, it's because she's [[BreakTheCutie broken]]. Then theirs the fact that she's been manipulating an entire village into sacrificing there children. (said sacrifice involves ''[[AndIMustScream sealing said children inside of]]'' '''''[[AndIMustScream coffins]]''''' ''[[AndIMustScream until they die]]. And it's implies that she controls their spirits as her servants.

** For that matter. ''Who in the (BEEP!) designed that (BEEP!)ing castle?!'' '''''Seriously!''''' ''What kind of retarded (BEEP!)ing moron designs a castle where you have to swing on a chain hanging precariously over a five hundred (BEEP!)ing metre drop,'' '''''just''''' ''so you can open the'' '''''FRONT (BEEP!)ING DOOR!!!!''''' Now I know that sometimes you have to scale sheer walls because the bridge you would normally use has crumbled away. But there are other times when you realise that the castle has actually been ''designed'' that way. ''''''WHAT THE HELL!!!!'''''

* BadExportForYou: As mentioned above, the American release omitted many features from the game ([[NewGamePlus most of which are only accessible on a second playthrough in the original version]]), along with [[ContemptibleCover one of the most jarringly unnecessary cover art redesigns]] in gaming history.

* AndTheFandomRejoiced: The recent announcement of ''ICO and Shadow of the Colossus: The Collection.'' Which not only brings both ICO and ShadowOfTheColossus to the {{PS3}}, with HD graphics, 3D Enable, and fixed framerates, but also, finally, will allow American audiences to enjoy the complete (PAL and Japanese) version of Ico. Took you long enough, Sony.

* BadExportForYou - As mentioned below, the American release omitted many features from the game ([[NewGamePlus most of which are only accessible on a second playthrough in the original version]]), along with [[ContemptibleCover one of the most jarringly unnecessary cover art redesigns]] in gaming history.

* GuideDangIt - Finding the secret weapons. If you are not informed (or don't look at the trophies in the PS3 edition), you won't even ''suspect'' there are secret weapons! After all, weapons don't really have much importance to begin with and ICO isn't exactly the kind of game where you would expect such easter eggs.

* NightmareFuel - You spend the entire game wondering just what these smokemen are. [[spoiler:In your final encounter with them, they come flying out of the cells in the prison tower where the horned boys were left to die.]]

*** Not to mention, the walls of the tomb room are packed full of similar urns, indicating that Ico's intended fate isn't exactly unique...
* PlayerPunch - [[spoiler:Returning to the hall of sarcophagi where you started the game from after you're separated from Yorda -- only to find her surrounded by shadows of horned boys like yourself and turned to stone.]]

* TearJerker - The ending sequence.

* GuideDangIt - Finding the secret weapons. If you are not informed (or don't look at the trophies in the PS3 edition), you won't even ''suspect'' there are secret weapons! After all, weapons don't really have much importance to begin with and ICO isn't exactly the kind of game where you would expect such easter eggs. It's a bit as if Yorda and Ico had alternate costumes…

* GuideDangIt - Finding the secret weapons. If you are not informed (or don't look at the trophies in the PS3 edition), you won't even ''suspect'' there are secret weapons! After all, weapons don't really have much importance to begin with and ICO isn't exactly the kind of game where you would expect such easter eggs.

* GuideDangIt - Finding the secret weapons. If you are not informed (or don't look at the trophies in the PS3 edition), you won't even ''suspect'' there are secret weapons! The fact that weapons don't really have much importance in the game doesn't help.

** [[spoiler: Put some more thought to it and it gets worse. If you look very closely, the last few Shadows you have to "kill" look exactly like Ico, down to the cuffs on his wrists. Every time you kill one, a coffin lights up. Ico's coffin was lit up before he was put into it, and the lights went away when he was placed inside. Those last few Shadows are ''previously sacrificed horned boys'', all of which suffered the same fate that Ico was supposed to (described below). While you can interpret that, since the coffins light up again, this means that the Shadows no longer have any connection to the coffins or the castle, and that it could mean that Ico is essentially (although unknowingly) freeing them. The nightmare fuel here is this: horned boys are born once every few generations. This means that there have been several decades between each sacrifice, and Ico was the last one out of a total of 40. Do the math, and you find out that most of those Shadows are the souls of those horned children, and have been trapped in the castle and forced under whatever bidding the Queen had for them for ''entire centuries''. [[{{AndIMustScream}} Think about what they were doing when the Queen didn't need them.]] And before Ico arrived, the Queen ''never'' needed them.]]

** Put some more thought to it and it gets worse. If you look very closely, the last few Shadows you have to "kill" look exactly like Ico, down to the cuffs on his wrists. Every time you kill one, a coffin lights up. Ico's coffin was lit up before he was put into it, and the lights went away when he was placed inside. Those last few Shadows are ''previously sacrificed horned boys'', all of which suffered the same fate that Ico was supposed to (described below). While you can interpret that, since the coffins light up again, this means that the Shadows no longer have any connection to the coffins or the castle, and that it could mean that Ico is essentially (although unknowingly) freeing them. The nightmare fuel here is this: horned boys are born once every few generations. This means that there have been several decades between each sacrifice, and Ico was the last one out of a total of 40. Do the math, and you find out that most of those Shadows are the souls of those horned children, and have been trapped in the castle and forced under whatever bidding the Queen had for them for ''entire centuries''. [[{{AndIMustScream}} Think about what they were doing when the Queen didn't need them.]] And before Ico arrived, the Queen ''never'' needed them.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming - The scene where Yorda, after spending most of the game being passive and having Ico help her around, [[spoiler: returns the favor and grabs ''his'' hand to keep him from falling off the aforementioned broken bridge.]]

*** Not to mention, the walls of the tomb room are packed full of similar urns, indicating that Ico's intended fate isn't exactly unique...